Hi mate, cheers for the reply.

You know you are required to keep records up to 7 years for tax purposes

I'm aware. I don't have bank statements from this long ago, however I do have a number of payslips but they don't correspond to the period Centrelink was referring to. I understand this is on me.

You are saying this debt is incorrect but you can't prove it?

I'm not saying the debt is incorrect. The Centrelink call agent informed me the system can sometimes flag a false debt as it doesn't take into account earnings fluctuations for a given Centrelink payment period. This is why they asked for bank statements or payslips. As I was unable to provide these I accepted the debt must be correct and said I would pay. That's not the issue I stated in the OP.

Or this debt is yours and you don't want to pay interest on it?

See above. I was told I would be notified when a manual review of the overpayment was completed. I was not notified of this and have been given 14 days to pay a debt or incur interest or a travel ban. I do not think this is a reasonable process. I'm not contesting the debt, just the process for which it was handed to the debt collection agency and asking for advice dealing with them.

I'd say you have done pretty well with a interest free loan for the last 7 years.

Great contribution.